Tony Abbott points way for same-sex marriage reform

Mark Kenny and Judith Ireland

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has set the conditions for a conscience vote in the Liberal party room on same sex marriage, clearing the way for a parliamentary vote as early as August on the proviso that any legislation must be lifted above party politics to be successful.

The move has dramatically increased the prospects of achieving full marriage equality for same-sex relationships in Australia within the calendar year and follows Ireland's historic 62 per cent 'yes' vote in a national referendum last weekend.

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Speaking in the Parliament on Wednesday, Mr Abbott, who remains personally opposed to broadening the Marriage Act, acknowledged that momentum for change within the community, and within his own party, meant a vote would occur at some point, However, he made clear, progress would not be ceded to the ALP.

"If our Parliament were to make a big decision on a matter such as this, I want it to be owned by the Parliament, and not by any particular party," Mr Abbott said.

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That was a response to an attempt by Opposition Leader Bill Shorten to seize the initiative on Tuesday through his own private member's bill.

Mr Abbott believes the reform, if is to be debated, must be relieved of any such party branding. To that end, he has given his imprimatur to former government whip Liberal MP Warren Entsch to seek a suitable backbencher on the Labor side to co-sponsor a new private member's bill.

Like many of the government side, Mr Entsch was highly critical of Mr Shorten's approach, but revealed he had held discussions with the Prime Minister and had already started gathering supporters.

"I am actually getting together with a group of us that had been working on this for some time," Mr Entsch said.

"We are going to come back with a strategy that we are going to talk to the PM about as soon as we have had that meeting."

He indicated the "thinking" was to get the private member's bill into the Parliament soon to bring on a party room vote in August with the aim of securing a free vote.

A free vote would allow all Liberals to vote as they see fit, removing the normal requirement for ministers to vote as a bloc or resign. Mr Abbott believes the August timeline would allow budget legislation to be debated in the meanwhile and carries the added advantage of requiring the ALP to confront the thorny issue of a Left-faction proposal of a binding vote on MPs in favour of marriage equality at its July National Conference.

"At this stage I suspect we have still got some numbers that need to come in," Mr Entsch said of his own side, revealing that "a bit of work" still needed to be done to ensure success.

"There are quite a lot of people who are changing their view on this," Mr Entsch said.

Influential Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos became the latest conservative to announce in principle support for the change as long as the legislation guarantees the freedom of religious faiths not to perform same-sex marriages if they object.

The NSW senator praised the Prime Minister's capacity to surprise critics by thinking through issues carefully.

"The Prime Minister has pulled the right rein on this ... for a free vote," he said.

In a further sign of a new more constructive approach, Mr Abbott dropped a frequent conservative refrain that "gay" marriage was an inner-city pre-occupation and an illegitmate distraction from serious concerns, by branding it "an important issue".

While the first hurdle for pro-reform MPs is the free vote in the Liberal party room, estimates show the House of Representatives is evenly poised and may be just one or two votes away from gathering enough support in the Senate.

Labor's Anna Burke declared her support for same-sex marriage on Wednesday, which takes the lower house to 75 MPs in favour of same-sex marriage, based on Australian Marriage Equality's analysis. Seventy six votes are needed to pass a bill.

Mr Abbott has previously said it will be up to individuals in the Liberal Party to decide their position on a free vote and has conceded he is the only person in his family who is against same-sex marriage.

On Wednesday, Ms Burke revealed that she not only backs same-sex marriage but a binding vote.

"Marriage equality should be endorsed by our Parliament and our community, as it is a fundamental right that everyone should be equal before the law and marriage is a legally binding contract enacted under law," Ms Burke said.

Ms Burke polled her electorate on marriage equality in 2010, which told her "my community did not support a change to the Marriage Act". The Labor MP holds the seat of Chisholm in Melbourne's eastern suburbs.

She explained she did not put forward her own personal view at the time because she believed same-sex marriage "needs to be embraced by the community to ensure lasting equality".